WhereIsTheInterpreter. The hearing, held at the Royal Courts of Justice in London this Friday.

WhereIsTheInterpreter The hearing, held at the Royal Courts of Justice in London this Friday, will see a judge determine whether 276 Deaf people are entitled to compensation over a lack of British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation for the UK Government’s Covid briefings.

The main focus of our campaign was to ensure that our language is recognised and accepted. Sign Language Citizens excluded from largest commercial news organisation, including breaking news on a regional and national level.

Sign Language Community has been fighting for access for years! It is time for the society to change, not us!

My mum said “I raised you to be equal to everybody else, you fight for what you believe in. If you step down now, you won’t know whether you could have achieved it or not”.

Our work is not over yet! #WhereIsTheInterpreter campaign.

National Briefings concerning crisis issues in the UK are expected to be accessible from the same ‘space’ as the speakers and be seen on BBC1 and other national broadcasters’ News programmes. This is why we are campaigning to have the interpreter at the briefings so they can be viewed on all TV channels.

BBC1 is always at the start of every TV menu so is easy to find. The BBC News channel is often difficult to find – for example, 231 Freeview. This is stopping people being able to view the content easily and gain access to vital life saving information in their first language. Asking the deaf community to try to ‘find’ an accessible briefing on another channel is akin to asking a wheelchair user to go around the back of a building in order to be able to access it with ease. Deaf people feel marginalised and excluded.

2 years on, there has still not been any change, even after the legal challenge brought about by Kate Rowley on the  28th July 2021. We need to hold the Government to account, and let them know that our rights cannot be ignored. If we don’t fight to change the system, things will continue to be the way they are! So I and 275 deaf members have taken the decision to bring legal proceedings again, against the Cabinet Office and this will be happening at the Royal Court of Justice on the 23rd September 2022.”

“I truly do not want to be in this position of having to bring a legal challenge, however the government has left me with no choice. We are not asking for anything other than to have our language accepted and to be shown visually on all channels, this will give us parity to hearing people who do not have to rely on accessing information in different formats.